A poem by Sohrab Sepehri

Unfortunately I was never good at memorizing poems.
However, there was one poem which had stayed in my mind for a very long time. And I kept reciting it to myself for years.
Today, I found a fair translation of it from Persian and would like to share it with you.
Hope you enjoy…


The Foot Steps Of Water

Life's a pleasant tradition.
Life's wing is as vast as death.
Life's a jump the size of love.
Life's not something,
we put on the mantel of habit
and forget.



It does not matter where I am.
The sky is always mine.
Windows, ideas, air, love,
earth, all mine.
Why does it matter if sometimes,
the mushrooms of nostalgia grow?

Let's take off our clothes.
Water is just a foot away.
Let's have a basket and
fill it up with all the greens
and all the reds.

We are not to comprehend;
the secret of roses, but maybe
swimming in the incantation of roses.
Or may be looking for
the song of truth
between the morning glory,
and the century.

Poem by: Sohrab Sepehri
Translated by: Mahvash Shahegh